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Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn It is perhaps surprising that family law and child care cases in particular have taken so long to provide systematic support for vulnerable parties. It is now possible to ask the court to consider appointing an intermediary – someone specialised in communication (often through studying psychology or speech & language therapy) –…

Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn I am reliably informed that a court has in one case dealt with the issue of making a compensation payment to a parent whose child had been accommodated under s 20 for a long time without proper consent being obtained. The court has made both a costs order against the local authority…

Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn An issue recently arose in a case where a mother had agreed that her children should live temporarily with their grandmother, a month later gave s 20 consent for this and a month later the local authority issued proceedings. At the first hearing it was agreed that a child arrangements order should…

Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn As you will know if you look at my article on Interim Removal taking a child away before a final hearing is something of an uphill struggle. In C (A Child) (Refusal to Make an Interim Care Order) Mr Justice Holman declined to make an interim care order – though as he says himself…

Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn I came across a curious issue the other day. A solicitor representing the other side informed a litigant in person that under the rules, because he was unrepresented (he was by me, but by Direct Access), the solicitor was obliged to produce the bundle for the case (about contact). The rule…

Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn I am grateful to Nicola Jones-King of McMillan Williams & Jerry Bull of Atkins Hope who have provided the following thoughts on legal aid paying for judgment transcripts. The Legal Aid Agency’s position is that it will only cover a shared cost of transcript where it is needed to progress the case,…

Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Inspired by the The Syndrome screening I thought I would collect up a few useful resources on the topic of shaken baby, both legal and medical. For the moment I will concentrate on articles which are freely available but I will later produce a bibliography on articles which can be accessed through…

Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Me & my colleagues over at the Transparency Project have been discussing the vexed issue of transcripts of family court judgments NOT being published on Bailii and Paul McGrath has written about our project to research into this. I would love to hear about your experiences which I could then pass on…

Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn On 29th February I hosted a screening of a powerful US documentary about shaking baby: The Syndrome. The audience comprised a number of family lawyers, criminal lawyers, parents, bloggers & website authors, a documentary maker and doctors. The film tells the story of the development of the theory that there is such…